Springbank 30 (2025 Release) & Springbank Local Barley 8yo (2025 Release)

Springbank 30 (2025 Release)

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 46.0%

Price: £920.00

This year’s release of Springbank 30 is a mix of 85% bourbon casks, and 15% sherry casks. 1,900 bottles were released.

Nose

The nose opens with lovely light orchard fruits, the typical fresh apples and pears, with a hint of soft peach too. We're also finding candied lemon peel, saltwater, light toffee notes and vanilla cream. It's got quite a delicate nose, with hints of old oak furniture and dusty shelves. It noses its age, clearly older and softer, with most of the Springbank peat having dissipated over the years. Time and air brings out a bit more of the sherry character with some fresh red currants and a hint of worn leather. There's also the classic dunnage mustiness that we've come to expect from this distillery.

Palate

The palate opens with lots of fruity, sugary sweets, it's like stepping into an old school candy store. Apple, orange, pear, alongside a little guava too, with some sponge cake and vanilla frosting coming through. The palate then develops into more of an earthy, rich, honeycomb and toffee flavour with an underlying smoke that carries through into the good length finish. The mouthfeel is good, you can tell the reduction to 46% was only a few steps down from the natural cask strength of the barrels that went into the vatting. Time and air accentuates the smoke on the palate, giving a bit more body to the dram.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose has a bit more citrus poking through, lemon water, a little mint essence, even a touch of roasted pineapple. The nose is still quite subtle, but carries on with the sugar sweetness and soft cakeiness. The hints of sherry have mostly been replaced with biscuitier aromas, fresh shortbread fingers and digestive biscuits.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate maintains most of the same fruity sweets, but the palate becomes significantly richer and more sherry forward as it develops - we're getting spoonfuls of nutella spread, chocolate coated raisins and Medjool dates. The mouthfeel and finish remain mostly unchanged, perhaps a little drier on the finish than before. For us, the dram doesn't need any water.

Conclusion

We look forward to the yearly release of Springbank 30 as it's consistently great whisky, and this one follows the trend. The 2025 release is chock full of fruit, candy and a little smoke to keep you coming back. We will say that it seems a little less.. exciting than other years, slightly less complex, but it's undeniably delicious.

Score: 8.5/10

Value

At over £900 it’s not cheap, but you’d be lucky if you were able to get a bottle at that price. Springbank 

Springbank Local Barley 8yo (2025 Release)

Region: Campbeltown

ABV: 58.1%

Price: £94.95 

This year’s Local Barley release was produced using barley grown at High Ranach Farm. Distilled in July 2016, the spirit matured in a mix of ex-Sherry (50%) and ex-Bourbon (50%) casks before being bottled in December 2024 at eight years old. A total of 13,500 bottles were made available. 

Nose

The nose opens with turpentine and grilled lemons, floor cleaner, antiseptic cream, it's much more medicinal and industrial than we were expecting. There's a slight white pepperiness coming through, but overall it feels well balanced for the younger age. We're also finding some honey, vanilla beans and salted caramel as the dram starts to open up. There's a bit of campfire smoke sitting in the background too.

Palate

The palate has a bit of sawn wood initially, moving into those medicinal, antiseptic flavours, then following into more of a vanilla ice cream drizzled with salted caramel sauce towards the latter palate. The peat smoke sits nicely in the background, presenting as more of a beach bonfire, with a coastal sea breeze flowing by. The mouthfeel is lovely, it's very viscous, caramel-like, and the finish does stick around, mostly with roasted walnuts, dark chocolate and dry earth. The alcohol is a bit more present than it was on the nose, not overly spicy, but providing a warm heft to the dram.

Nose (with water)

The reduced nose shows more of a typical Springbank style, with dunnage warehouse must, salty sea air, lemon peel, vanilla cream and runny honey. As we sit with it, we're greeted with those medicinal aromas, however they're softer now. Alcohol wise it's mostly the same, and it's still quite expressive.

Palate (with water)

The reduced palate maintains the caramel-sauce like mouthfeel, with more upfront grilled lemon, and we're now getting fish oil capsules, dry earth, basil leaves, and a bit of butterscotch. It's less sweet, a bit drier overall with more oak coming through, and the spice feels a bit punchier. Definitely a dram that you could experiment with when adding water, it's up to personal preference.

Conclusion

Not a-typical Springbank for us, the nose presents a real industrial, medicinal style, however the palate brings it towards more of a traditional Campbeltown dram. It's got all the hallmarks of great quality whisky, and the younger age statement doesn't show through as much as we thought it might - the spirit has integrated well with the casks chosen. Perhaps not our favourite Local Barley, but that's more to our palates than the quality of the dram. 

Score: 7.5/10

Value

Like today’s other releases, finding this at RRP would be incredibly lucky.

• 10 - Perfection. One in a million
• 9 - Outstanding. Exceptional whisky.
• 8 - Great. Would seek this out.
• 7 - Good. Quality whisky.
• 6 - Above average. Happy to have a dram.
• 5 - Average. Drinkable whisky.
• 4 - Below average. Passable.
• 3 - Flawed. Noticeable negatives.
• 2 - Defective. Significant faults.
• 1 - Offensive. Pour it out.

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